14

SUNDAY

If you’re looking for a clue as to just how weird psychobilly forefather and one-man-band Hasil Adkins is, consider that every song on his 2000 album, Poultry in Motion, is about chickens. Let’s see, we’ve got “Chicken Hop 1958,” “Chicken Hunch,” “Chicken Run,” “Chicken Twist”—you get the idea. Adkins lives and records in a three-room tar-paper shack in the hills of West Virginia, likes polka-dotted cars, and subsists on a diet of coffee, liquor, and meat. (Word is he carries a supply of Vienna sausages in his pockets, should the hankering hit him.) Oh, and he’s written more than one song about cutting folks’ heads off. But my favorite story about the Haze is the one where a ceiling fan in a club was making too much noise, so Adkins pulled a gun and shot it, without missing a beat—no simple trick when you’re playing the guitar and drums at the same time. Adkins swaggers into town with Please and Shortstack at 8:30 p.m. at the Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. $12. (202) 667-7960. (Michael Little)